William Perkins was born on July 27, 1920 and grew up at 4 Pearl Street in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1943, Perkins was married with four children when he received his draft notice.

In April of 1944, he was assigned to McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento as part of the all-black 4909th Aviation Base Unit - truck drivers, mess hall workers, guards and MPs. He met his best friend Walter "Mac" Thompson on the train.

Perkins and Thompson, along with the rest of the 4909th, were housed in a segregated section of the base, in substandard shacks they called "splinter city." There were separate facilities on the base for black and white personnel -- separate theaters, chapels, even bowling alleys.

In May, 1944, the men in the unit formed a band, The 4909th Barons of Swing, for which Perkins served as prop man. He also sang as part of an a capella group called the Five GIs, reminiscent of the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers.

In late 1944, Perkins was assigned to the 2280th Truck Company, and a few months later, sent to Guam where he hauled supplies -- bombs, medical supplies, lumber etc. Perkins returned to the United States in November, 1945 and remained in the service for twenty years, rising to become a staff sergeant and mechanic specialist. In the late 1950s he was stationed at Beale Air Force Base, 20 miles from Sacramento, and he re-met and married Barbara Covington. Perkins retired from the military in 1964 and worked as a mechanic for the United States Postal Service until 1980.